2. Especially if you were a mall goth.

3. Fortunately, Hot Topic existed.

Like how Urban Outfitters became a suburban hipster haven, Hot Topic was (and is!) the go-to for all your alternative clothing needs. Instead of an eye contact showdown between you and your enemy clique in the food court, you could escape here, listen to Christian metalcore, and paint your nails black. It ruled.

I just learned that mall haul videos are a thing, and they’re destroying America. There was a reason PacSun is situated directly across the mall hallway from each Hot Topic: It’s supposed to be a face-off. You don’t shop at other stores. Get off our turf and we’ll stay off yours. Now everyone is, like, friends or something. But high school still sucks.

7. Articles like this are now void.

Alternate title: “How to Not Be Afraid at the Mall” followed by “If You Can’t Deal with Punks, How Will Your Mom Know to Go Into Hot Topic and Buy You All the Things.” They’ve made Hot Topic unintimidating, so instead of commodifying a subculture, they’ve made it more lucrative: It’s a subculture for everybody!

13. Even the store looks different now.

Oh, spiderweb vault, how I miss you. How I still fear I will one day lose my friend with the stupid nickname and end up trapped inside you forever. At least it’s not Spencer’s Gifts, right? No horror film paraphernalia?

17. Moms are totes down.

I remember my mom yelling at me when I bought a My Chemical Romance hoodie that had guns on it from Hot Topic. She called it the “weird kid store” and, more often than not, asked me why I wasn’t normal. She never wanted to go inside the store with me and the few times she did, she asked the employees why they would “choose” to “self-mutilate” (that’s mom for “have a nose piercing”).

23. …to Sanrio things…

24. …to full-on rave gear.

It probably happened at the moment Sonny Moore shed his emo exterior/flatiron and was reborn as Skrillex, but somewhere down the line, wearing black and going unseen was replaced with attention-grabbing(/seeking) neon colors.